When James II. attempted to overthrow the constitution, Gustavus Hamilton transferred his allegiance to the house of Orange. He was made governor of Enniskillen, and commanded and organized those brave troops which afterwards took so conspicuous a part in the civil war in Ireland. After exhibiting high proofs of bravery and skill in the defence of Coleraine, he commanded a regiment at the battle of the Boyne, where he distinguished himself by his usual valour, having his horse killed under him, and narrowly escaping death. At the storming of Athlone, shortly after, he waded the Shannon at the head of his regiment, and took the town, of which he was made governor. He was present and took a prominent part at all the principal battles fought by De Ginkle. On the reduction of the country he was made one of the privy council, promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and received grants of forfeited lands. In the reign of Queen Anne he was farther raised to the rank of major-general, and represented the county of Donegal in parliament till created a peer. At the siege of Vigo he commanded a regiment, and made himself so useful on the occasion that he was presented with a service of plate by the queen. In 1714 George I. advanced him to the dignity of Baron Hamilton of Stackaller. The same king granted him a military pension, and promoted him to the title of Viscount Boyne by patent dated 1717. He died in September, 1723, in the 84th year of his age.—J. F. W.
BOYSE, BOYS or BOIS, John, an English divine, one of the translators of the bible, and a member of the committee intrusted with the revision of the work, born at Nettlestead, Suffolk, in 1560; died in 1643. He succeeded his father-in-law in the curacy of Boxworth in 1596, and in 1615 was presented to a prebend in the cathedral of Ely. He left an immense quantity of MSS., and a work entitled "Johannis Boisii veteris interpretis cum Beza aliisque recentioribus Collatio, in IV. Evangeliis et Actis Apostolorum," 1655.—J. S., G.
BOYSEN, Friedrich Eberhard, a German historian, born at Halberstadt in 1720; died in 1800; author of a translation of the Koran, with notes; "A Universal History;" "Theological Letters," in German, and other works.—J. G.
BOYSSIÈRES, Jean de, born at Clermont-Ferrand in 1555. The date of his death is unknown. He was educated for the bar, but abandoned all regular occupations for the purpose of giving himself exclusively to literary pursuits. In 1573 he published his "Premières Œuvres Amoureuses," consisting of odes, chansons, plaints, tears, despairs, &c., amatory, allegorical, devotional, intermixed with some which could scarcely be read aloud, and which seem to refuse the veil of allegory. We have "Des Humeurs de la Femme," in which the ladies are attacked with malignant pleasantry; and we have "Les Perfections Célestes de la Femme," in which idealised woman is almost a subject of worship. He published in 1584 a poem which he calls "La Croisade," which he seems to have intended for an epic poem. It was never completed. Moréri, who probably did not see any essential distinction between French poetry and prose, took it for a historical account of the crusades, and another biographer calls it a translation of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. This mistake probably arose from De Boyssières having translated some cantos of Ariosto.—J. A., D.
BOZE, Claude Gros de, a French antiquary, born in 1680; died in 1753. In 1705 he was nominated a scholar of the Academy of Inscriptions, and, in spite of his youth, he was in the following year elected secretary. In 1715 he was offered and declined the office of subpreceptor to Louis XV., and was admitted a member of the French Academy as the successor of Fenelon. In 1719 he was appointed keeper of the cabinet of antiquities, which in 1741 was transferred from Versailles to Paris. De Boze rendered important services to those branches of science with which he was conversant. He edited the first fifteen volumes of the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, and wrote all the eloges to be found in them except the first six. He also published a second edition, with a continuation, of the Medallic History of Louis XIV., a treatise on the Jewish jubilee, a dissertation on the Janus of the ancients, and some other works of less importance.—J. T.
BOZZOLI, Giuseppe, born at Mantua in 1724; died towards the close of the eighteenth century; successively professor of physics and of canon law and ecclesiastical history at Rome, and subsequently professor of oriental languages at the university of Mantua; author of a translation of Homer and Virgil, in Italian verse.—J. G.
BRABANT, Dukes of. The following are the more distinguished of these princes—they boasted descent from Charlemagne:—Henri le Guerroyeur, the first duke of Brabant (his predecessor bore the title of count), died in 1235.—Henri II. le Magnanime, an amiable and virtuous prince, died in 1248.—Henri III. le Debonnaire, beloved for his mild government, and renowned for his French songs, died in 1261.—Jean I. le Victorieux, married in 1269 Marguerite de France, daughter of St. Louis. When his sister, Marie de Brabant, queen of France, was accused of having poisoned her stepson, Prince Louis, he disguised himself as a cordelier, and went to Paris to interrogate her. Convinced of her innocence he challenged to the combat all her accusers. la 1292 the Emperor Adolphus constituted him supreme judge of the provinces between the sea and the Moselle. He was killed in a tournament in 1294.—Jean II. le Pacifique, granted to his subjects a bill of rights; and by a charter, called the charter of Cortemberg, instituted a supreme council in his duchy. He died in 1312. Jean III. le Triomphant, maintained successfully various wars with the princes of Germany. Died in 1355.—Jeanne, duchess of Brabant, succeeding Jean III. in 1356, married Wenceslas of Luxemburg, who, in a war with the duke of Juliers, was made prisoner, and only released on condition of ceding a portion of his estates. She died in 1406.—Antoine, killed in the service of France at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, was the son of Phillip the Hardy, duke of Burgundy, and inherited the duchy through his mother, who was heiress to the preceding.—Jean IV., the last who wore the title of duke of Brabant, married in 1418 his cousin Jacqueline, countess of Holland and Hainault. This princess, having been divorced from her husband by the antipope, Benedict XIII., married Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, who, after defeating the Flemings and Burgundians, whom the duke of Brabant had called to his assistance, left her at Mons to return to England. The inhabitants of that town delivered her into the hands of Phillip the Good, by whom she was conducted to Ghent. From that place she escaped in disguise into Holland. In 1425 Jean IV. was proclaimed count of Holland. He died childless in 1427. His successor was the Count St. Pol, who also left no posterity. The estates of Brabant now constitute a province of Belgium.—J. S., G.
BRABAZON, Sir William, eminent for his steadiness, bravery, and the important services which he rendered the English government in Ireland. In 1534 he was appointed treasurer and receiver-general of that kingdom; and in 1535 distinguished himself by his resistance to Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, and the following year by his defeating O'Conor Faly in Kildare. In 1539 he was appointed commissioner for receiving the surrender of abbeys. On the accession of Edward VI. he was made a privy councillor, and suggested and carried out important improvements in the defence of the country. He attacked and defeated Charles Kavanagh M'Art in 1549, compelling him to submit to the English government. He died at Carrickfergus in 1552, and his body was buried in St. Catherine's church, Dublin, his heart having been conveyed to England.—J. F. W.
BRACCAN, Saint, an Irish ecclesiastic who lived in the seventh century. His prophecies, chiefly in verse, were, according to Ware, collected and published by Walter de Islip in the year 1317.—J. F. W.
BRACCIOLINI, better known by his christian name Poggio, was born at Terra Nuova, a small town near Florence, in the year 1380. Very few literary men have met with so many changes of fortune as Poggio did. Having been the pupil of the two greatest classic scholars of that age, John of Ravenna, and Emanuel Crisolora, he was enabled, at the age of twenty-one, to partake of the reputation of his preceptors, and was considered an eminent classic scholar. Boniface IX. created him his apostolic secretary, an office which he filled under seven successive popes. Leonardo Bruni d'Arrezzo, and Nicoló Nicoli were his most intimate friends, and partook of his literary renown, by encouraging and helping him in his literary researches. Although approaching the throne, he did not hesitate often to state the truth, even when against his own interest, and he loudly disapproved of the judgment and execution of Jerome of Prague and John Huss. It was about that time, 1416, Poggio acquired indisputable claims to the gratitude of his country, by the discovery of a great number of precious manuscripts. We owe to him the twelve plays of Plautus, several discourses of Cicero, Ascanius Pedianus, Silus Italicus, Valerius Flaccus,
